When you want to work but can’t seem to start

Summary

The Good Ship Illustration

Episode: When you want to work but can’t seem to start
Release Date: January 23, 2026
Hosts: Helen Stephens, Katie Chappell, Tania Willis
(As represented in this transcript as Sam, Jill, Gerry)

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Good Ship Illustration delves into a common struggle for illustrators (and creatives in general): why is it so hard to start working, even when you really want to? The hosts share candid stories, practical tricks, and psychological insights about overcoming procrastination, perfectionism, and creative blocks. Listeners are reassured that they’re not alone in getting stuck and are given a toolkit of self-compassion, incremental progress, and playful experimentation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Bribery & Breaking Through Resistance

• Starting Small: Jill admits to using rewards—“bribing myself” with a “very dark, very bitter hot chocolate” after just 20 minutes of work.
  [00:28]
  • Quote:

    "If I can do 20 minutes at my desk, it's better than not doing it. And I will treat myself to a very gorgeous bitter hot chocolate."
    – Jill [00:28]

• External Help: Sometimes even tidying the studio feels overwhelming; Jill once asked her partner to tidy it so she could get started.
  [01:17]

2. The Real Barrier: Fear & Perfectionism

• Fear of Failure:
  • Quote:

    "I don't want to disappoint myself or find out I'm not very good after all, so just not bother."
    – Sam & Gerry [01:54]

• Perfectionism: The desire for a “guarantee” that the work will be amazing prevents starting at all.

3. Radical Incrementalism

(Inspired by Oliver Burkman's “Four Thousand Weeks”)

• Small Daily Steps: Sam explains the idea of limiting oneself to 20 minutes a day, even if motivated to do more, to build sustainable habits and avoid burnout.
  [02:06]
  • Quote:

    "People who used radical incrementalism… got way more done using that system than the big old kind of raw dogging 'I'm going to do five hours on this.'"
    – Sam [02:06]

4. Teaspoon by Teaspoon: Building Careers with Small Efforts

• The “Teaspoon” Approach: Small, consistent actions—sending out samples, building an audience, doing a little each day—create momentum and lead to significant results over time.
  [03:44]
  • Quote:

    "Drip, drip, drip a little bit every day... that launched my career."
    – Jill [03:54]

5. Warm-Up Rituals & Trickery

• Physical & Mental Warm-Ups: Cleaning the workspace, prepping materials, or simply sitting at the desk can “trick” the brain into starting.
  • Pinterest & Palettes: Looking at inspirational boards or mixing colors can act as gentle entry points into creativity.
    [05:19 – 06:33]
• Half-Assing to Start: Intentionally doing a “bad version” or “just a sketch” takes the pressure off and gives something to edit later.
  [06:45]
  • Quote:

    "Knowing it's bad before I even start… it's like, okay, I'm working now."
    – Gerry [06:45]

6. Accountability & Community

• Co-Working: Joining online co-working sessions, using timers, publicly declaring goals, and blocking digital distractions are effective motivators.
  [12:36]
• Music and Soundscapes: Wearing headphones and listening to instrumental music, bird sounds, or rain help some hosts focus.
  • Quote:

    "I really like bird sounds or sounds of the sea. If it's not raining, then bird sounds on big squishy earphones—perfect. Just go off in my own world."
    – Jill [13:53]

7. Playfulness Versus Pressure

• Retaining Fun & Energy: The hosts discuss the way initial creative excitement can be drained by logic, production requirements, and the pressure to be “grown up” or “professional.”
  [09:00–10:57]
  • Quote:

    "As long as you can keep the excitement of the beginning of the project in your mind... try and keep that fun, playful excitement from the early idea."
    – Jill [09:53]

8. Tricks Against Perfectionism

• Technical Workarounds: Use roughs, overlays, and lightboxes to keep drawings loose. Work on multiple pieces at once to reduce stakes and pressure on any single piece.
  [15:19–17:00]
• Accepting the Mess: Prepare piles of pre-cut paper to quickly move past mistakes and stay in the flow.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Bribing Yourself:

  "If I can do 20 minutes at my desk, it's better than not doing it. And I will treat myself..."
  – Jill [00:28]

• On Perfectionism and Fear:

  "I don't want to disappoint myself or find out I'm not very good after all, so just not bother."
  – Sam & Gerry [01:54]

• On Radical Incrementalism:

  "You can only do 20 minutes every day. And in fact you can't go over it. Even if you're really enjoying it. You cannot do more than 20 minutes."
  – Sam [02:06]

• On Building Careers:

  "Drip, drip, drip a little bit every day... that launched my career."
  – Jill [03:54]

• On “Bad Versions”:

  "I'm doing a bad version now. ...it's like, okay, I'm working now."
  – Gerry [06:45]

• On Retaining Playfulness:

  "Try and keep that fun, playful excitement from the early idea and have confidence that that idea was good and keep the looseness and the freshness of it."
  – Jill [09:53]

• On Working Multiple Pieces:

  "Just have a few pieces of paper around so you're not betting on one turning out well."
  – Sam [16:41]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Bribing Yourself & Overcoming Resistance: 00:28–01:43
• Fear, Perfectionism, and Procrastination: 01:43–02:06
• Radical Incrementalism & 20-Minute Rule: 02:06–03:24
• Drip-Drip Career Building: 03:44–04:19
• Warm-Up Rituals, Pinterest, Play: 05:13–06:33
• Co-working, Accountability, Motivation Aids: 12:36–14:19
• Retaining Playfulness vs. Pressure: 09:00–10:57
• Perfectionist Hacks & Multiple Pieces: 15:19–17:00
• Invitation to Send in Tricks & Freebies: 17:20–18:00

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Episode Tone & Style

Playful, honest, and confessional—full of warmth, self-effacing humor, and mutual support. The hosts acknowledge the real psychological hurdles illustrators face and respond with actionable, empathetic wisdom, always with a dash of British wit.

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Takeaways

• All creatives struggle to start work sometimes—it’s not “just you.”
• Small, consistent daily effort is more effective than rare marathon sessions.
• Lower the bar to entry: bribe yourself, make “bad versions” on purpose, use warm-ups, and forgive yourself.
• Community, accountability, and environmental cues (music, sound, co-working) really help.
• Keep some excitement and fun alive—don’t let “perfection” and “doing it right” kill your energy.
• Develop personal “tricks” that work for you and share them with others for collective benefit.

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To share your own motivational tricks, visit: thegoodshipillustration.com/freebies

[Episode ends with an open invitation for listeners to contribute their own strategies for getting started and to join the creative community.]

Transcript

[Sam]

Sam.

[Jill]

Bribe myself. So I think if I can do 20 minutes at my desk, it's better than not doing it. And I will treat myself to a very gorgeous bitter hot chocolate. That sounds. I know that's not everybody's taste, but my. My idea of bribery is a very dark, very bitter hot chocolate. And then once I'm in there and 20 minutes have gone by, I'm in the zone then. And so I get my hot chocolate and then I'm back to it. I feel like as soon as you break the barrier, what is that barrier? Sometimes you're like, I need to do this. I want to do this. I don't. I can't do it. Why do we do that?

[Sam]

Yeah. We build it up into our head.

[Jill]

That it's something more.

[Sam]

I think Jill Calder says she makes her husband go into the studio and turn the heating on.

[Jill]

I got Gerry to go and tidy my studio up once because I couldn't even do that bit. I couldn't even get in there to tidy it up. So I said to Jerry, I can't get in there. There's something wrong with me. I can't even go in and tidy up. And then I didn't actually get him to do it. He just came back to me and went, I've tidied it up. That was so nice. It was so nice. He'd got all the cobwebs off the ceiling and everything.

[Gerry]

He's a keeper.

[Jill]

Yeah, yeah.

[Gerry]

Sometimes I feel, like, scared to start, even though I know it's not scary and nothing actually bad is gonna happen, but I'm like, what if it's bad?

[Sam]

That's it. That's what it's all about. It's fear of failure, isn't it?

[Jill]

Yeah.

[Sam]

I don't want to disappoint myself or find out I'm not very good after.

[Gerry]

All, so just not bother.

[Sam]

It's perfectionism as well, isn't it?

[Gerry]

If you could guarantee it's going to be amazing and you're going to love it, I'd be like, let's do it now.

[Jill]

Let's start.

[Gerry]

But it's never the case.

[Sam]

I was reading that book that you recommended to me, which I love it so much. I'm on the second version. Oliver Berkman, 4000 Weeks. My favorite book of the year. Radical in. Not that he didn't invent this bit, but he talked about radical incrementalism. Because we're so obsessed with doing everything really quickly and outcomes and completion that the task is too big and we feel like it's all going to go wrong because there's too much to do. So they were his, whoever he said the system was created by. You can only do 20 minutes every day. And in fact you can't go over it. Even if you're really enjoying it. You cannot do more than 20 minutes. And the people who used radical incrementalism in terms of things like completing a PhD got way more done using that system than the big old kind of raw dogging. I'm going to do five hours on this. And is that raw dogging?

[Gerry]

Yeah.

[Sam]

I like choosing other people's words.

[Gerry]

I'm so proud.

[Sam]

Often use them in the wrong places and mean something entirely different.

[Gerry]

Raw dogging is a risky one, isn't it?

[Sam]

It sounds so filthy.

[Jill]

Well, it is in the beginning.

[Sam]

Has it come into common parlance now? Album. But I think that system that was so uplifting to think that honestly just this is what I'm going to do with the color workshop. 20 minutes every day.

[Jill]

I think that is so true. Just 20 minutes every day of anything builds up massive. Like I thought about Instagram like that at the beginning. When you've got no followers and it seems like a mountain to even get up to 50, 20 minutes every day, just a little bit every day. It's amazing how quickly that adds up into something substantial.

[Sam]

The elephant, isn't it? Teaspoon by teaspoon.

[Gerry]

That's right. When I spoke to Catherine Rayner, she's like, if you keep showing up, you can't help but get better as well. Like it's not optional.

[Jill]

Same as sending out samples. I used to work at the science museum during the day. Get home from work at the science museum, write it, get out the writers and artist yearbook, find a load of addresses, write a pile of postcards, stick stamps on them. Next day, walk past the post box, stick them in, go to work. It was all I could do because I had a part time job. But it that launched my career. Just sending people samples constantly. Drip, drip, drip a little bit every day.

[Sam]

Because I was thinking why can't we do these little bits? It's really hard to train yourself to get over the desire to do something in a massive chunk quickly, maybe over two or three days and have it done. Because perhaps that's the way we work with illustration and deadlines and you know you've got a week to hand in magazine illustration. But your lifestyle forced you into it. So it worked and then you saw the benefit of it. But it's quite. Yeah, just the training of yourself. To do a little bit of this. It's the same as people say, just two minutes a day. Oh, go away. I've got a million things to do for two minutes a day.

[Jill]

You have other tasks you do to warm you up. So like sometimes going in the room and finding that all my jars of water are dirty is great, but actually it's really useful because it gets my brain and my physical body in the right spot and then I can gradually work or I'll cut the paper to size.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Gerry]

It's like if I just clear my desk, I've started like the momentum's going even though I'm not actually doing anything yet.

[Sam]

Being a bit more forgiving, isn't it? About yourself. Okay, just turn up, sit down. Even if you sit at the desk with a piece of paper in front of you and you don't have to do anything, eventually you will. About 12 minutes, you'll start doodling or doing something.

[Jill]

12 minutes. That's so scientific.

[Sam]

How do you know what research I'm imagining? If I'm thinking I don't want to work, how long would I sit in front of a piece of paper going, honestly, I'm not in the mood. I'm not. Nothing's going to make me do it. I'm sure I'd crack at around 12. You can't just sit there doing nothing for that long. I like a good look at my Pinterest boards. Oh, yeah, that really revs me up. I get so inspired. Pick a favorite Pinterest board and just look through that for a while or just mix up some paint.

[Jill]

I've done that in relation to work. Haven't you?

[Sam]

No.

[Jill]

I really love looking at Pinterest, but I never think of that as a warm up for work.

[Sam]

Oh, I'm definitely. When I'm really stuck, I always use that just because it. It's like smelling good food, cooking when you're hungry. It really gets ready. I'm so ready for it.

[Jill]

Oh, I really love. That's something that will get me into it as well. Is think I'll just mix the perfect neutral and I spend ages doing that. And then it's like, oh, what would go with it then? And before I know it, I'm making a palette.

[Sam]

Yeah. Or mark making. You could do a bit of color, then you could do mark making or seeing what lines you like. Fat lines, dry lines, wet lines. Just that kind of play is a good starting point.

[Gerry]

I find it really helpful to say I'm doing a bad version now. So especially if I'M like planning out like an infographic or something. I'll be like, okay, this is the bad one. You know, be really like just a sketch, but just doing that and knowing it's bad before I even start. It's like, okay, I'm working now.

[Jill]

Yeah. This is like half assing it.

[Gerry]

Yeah.

[Jill]

Half assing anything is so much easier now.

[Gerry]

I have to make it better.

[Jill]

Yeah.

[Gerry]

Because it exists.

[Jill]

Yeah. We're going through this at the moment with PI. She's writing her university statement. So we're trying to do it in little tiny bite sized bits. So we sit every evening or every other evening, we work on it for half an hour and we'll come up with something and she'll write it and she'll go, it's what I want to say, but I hate how I've written it. And it's like, good, we've got something to edit tomorrow and we just leave it really badly done. And then the next day we go back and we tweak it. Oh, yeah.

[Gerry]

You wake up and you're like, duh, easy, just do that.

[Jill]

I know what I need to do now.

[Sam]

Done is better than perfect. Just kind of bare bones of it all. What else? Oh, the other version is the really mean version of I could. I need to be berated. And I could also offer a berating service for people who are a bit stuck. I'm going to set up a private phone number that you can contact.

[Gerry]

You could make like an email funnel of you just being like, oh, God, have you not done it yet?

[Sam]

Yeah, I told you. Yes. Do you want to be a loser all your life?

[Gerry]

I would not like that.

[Sam]

But then they do. It depends how big the project is. But I often think it's a big thing. A book. As an editorial illustrator, we were used to one week deadlines, live illustrator, one day deadlines. You can do it, you can sustain it and someone else is telling you to do it. There's money at the end of it. There's all those different motivations.

[Jill]

It really helps when you know there's money at the end.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Jill]

And you have a art director to speak to every time you're feeling like, is this going okay? Also, it sounds like a massive mountain and in some way is. It's a lot of work. But also the initial ideas are so exciting and they come up within minutes. And if you can hold your confidence with the excitement you got out of the idea in those first few minutes and hold onto that right through, that really helps. But it's hard tricks on your brain.

[Sam]

I didn't think you were going to say that. I thought you were going to say when all the ideas are bubbling up, they're new and fresh and you're excited. Put them down really quickly.

[Jill]

Yes.

[Sam]

I don't turn this into a mountain.

[Jill]

No, that is that. Be confident in your ideas. The ideas usually come quickly and they're really exciting. It's the bit I find after the idea is down, contract is signed and now there's the expectation to do it. That's the bit where it feels like a mountain. As long as you can keep the excitement of the beginning of the project in your mind and not overwork and tighten up now that there's a contract. Because that's a danger as well. Now I've got a contract, it's a job and so fun. I don't know if that's allowed anymore. So try and keep that fun, playful excitement from the early idea and have confidence that that idea was good and keep the looseness and the freshness of it.

[Sam]

Yeah, they wanted you like that. Not the polished up version and feeling. That's really hard, that confidence thing, isn't it? You feel like the spotlight's on you. You're being observed now. So it's a whole different ball game in early days. God. I handed in some bizarre illustrations just because I couldn't. I couldn't hold my nerve. I'd say. The first three editorial illustrations make me cringe as I remember them.

[Jill]

Yeah, me too.

[Sam]

Didn't look like my portfolio. I was convinced I had to now be someone, somebody else.

[Gerry]

That pressure does something mad to your brain, doesn't it?

[Jill]

Yeah. This is a business.

[Gerry]

They're expecting big things.

[Sam]

Oh, no, they're expecting grown up, real illustrations. Illustrations that look like illustrations. Not the stuff in my portfolio that they actually did commission me for.

[Jill]

Yeah, it's.

[Sam]

Yeah, I think making something that's too big, you've turned it into something too big in your mind and the process is slow and you're going to trudge uphill. I think if you can just do it quickly. I mean, it's not always that way if a publisher's slowing you right up, but if you can.

[Jill]

Well, I think that the bit which feels like it slows up is when. So now you're going to do rough drawings. It has to fit into a certain number of spreads and the text has to fit in place. And that. That baby that you drew with the big bow around the neck, that makes you really inspired and you love it. You can't do that because if you put a bow around a baby's neck in a book that might become fashionable and babies can strangle themselves on bow around then it. You know what I mean? Once like logic like, like when we got really excited about our retreat, which we are gonna do one day, we got very excited. We're gonna have it on an island. It'll be so romantic. There'll be the sea and the wind and we'll be drawing and the tide will come in and we'll all be in there together. It'll be really cozy. And then we're like, yeah, but health and safety and there's no hospital on the island. Somebody gets ill. What?

[Gerry]

Somebody complains about the accommodation.

[Jill]

And then we were like, oh God, we are still going to do it. But one day within picture books there's sort of a framework it has to fit in which in one way is inspiring because you've got to fit your story and that number spreads but you've got to be careful that doesn't crush the idea.

[Gerry]

It's like in the picture book course when people say what dimension should it be? That's the logical brain coming in before they even had the story idea. They're like, okay, so what size is it?

[Sam]

Brain killing everything, isn't it?

[Gerry]

If you do it the wrong size, you've wasted it all and it won't. You can easily resize things and you.

[Jill]

Don'T write your story to the number of pages. You have your idea, then you find out, you speak to the publisher, they show you a blad, you work out if you've got end papers or not, therefore how many spreads you've got and then you make the idea fit in there brains just thinking about, yeah.

[Sam]

Other ways to make yourself work when.

[Gerry]

You start when I'm really stuck, I'll do online co working session. So where like other people are on the screen. We do like good ship do co working but I do other like there's other random co working you do online and that helps a lot. And having my headphones on helps a lot. And listening to music that doesn't have words. So at the moment I've been listening to solfeggio frequencies and they're a bit woo. Like they're cool though. Otherwise I'll start just like singing along and having a dance. But if it's just noise it seems like occupy my brain enough and I know the people on the screen can see me and I've said in the chat what I'm going to be working on and I've got a timer on and maybe I'll block. I'll have an app to block all my social media. Sometimes I've got to go really like heavy, but then I get loads done. Sometimes it's illustration edits because I really like. If it's not live, it's like pulling teeth because I just. It's boring. I have to.

[Sam]

I find this bit fascinating of your brain where you were like when you started illustration. You said you hated doing edits and you couldn't do jobs that would need a lot of revisions and rounds and you managed to find a job that would do it that suits live illustration, suits your brain in a oner. Over and done with.

[Gerry]

Yeah, until they need edits. But I'm a big girl and I can do it. But it's driven by like the pain of like the client said they needed this by today. I've got two hours quick. I gotta go.

[Jill]

So. Yeah. I really like your earphones tip. That works for me as well. Something about having my ears completely covered with squishy earphones. And I really like bird sounds or sounds of the sea. I really love it when it's raining outside and I can hear the rain on the window above me. My studio. But if it's not raining, then bird sounds on big squishy earphones. Perfect. Just go off in my own world. It just helps you get in the zone quicker, I think.

[Gerry]

Wasn't there a thing somebody said? Bird song is psychologically really relaxing because birds only sing when there's no predators around. So interesting when they're happy.

[Jill]

Yeah. Then I'm drawing out of fear, desperation.

[Gerry]

Seagulls trying to get chips off the other way.

[Sam]

Going back to the berating and frightening method. You could perhaps watch either watch a bit of a documentary of people at work in. What do they call them? Those human zoos? No. When they're little cubicles. Yeah. Maybe watch severance. Watch severance. That's your job. Would you like another job? A nice job where you didn't have to turn up at 9am you start when you want to start. You can listen to bird songs and have hot chocolate all day long, listen to the rain, do it in your pajamas and enjoy drawing? Oh yes, I'd like that job. Well, that's your job. Just go and do it, for God's sake.

[Gerry]

It is mad when you lay it out like that. If you're going to be drawing pictures in your own company, you can do whatever you like.

[Sam]

It's so hard. What are we whining about?

[Jill]

There's also all those tricks where if you're worried about the drawing not turning out right in picture books, you do a lot of rough drawings to get the layout right. Sometimes the energy can go out of those drawings because you draw them so many times. So I have shortcuts where it's. If I get a bit of a rough drawing wrong, I just glue a piece of paper over the top of the bit that's wrong and redraw over it so it stops it losing the energy. I use a light box. And so if I have the light box nice and mute, like very low light, I can't see through it properly, which means that I can't copy the rough drawing underneath. Exactly. And it keeps the energy. So I have like little tricks that mean the pressure on the drawing being perfect is less because that pressure of making the artwork perfect is just a nightmare. So I have to have all these like little tricks that stop me making perfectionist artwork. And that really helps. Yeah.

[Sam]

You think about the history of fine art, though most artists were drunk most of the time.

[Gerry]

I can see the appeal.

[Sam]

That's how they achieved the half cocked thing. Wasn't it like, oh, look, this is my loose work and unselfconscious and confident. It was all powered by alcohol and.

[Jill]

They would probably work on a few paintings at the same time so that all the pressure wasn't on one one painting turning out right. They'd have four or five on the go.

[Sam]

You can do that with illustration as well. Really? Well, can't you? Just have a few pieces of paper around so you're not betting on one turning out well. Although sometimes the struggle is quite good, isn't it? Battling one picture all the way through. But if it's got a lightness of touch and it's something quite gestural and simple and refined. Yeah, just have a few bits of paper.

[Jill]

I have to have all my paper cut to size in a massive pile first. Because if every time one goes wrong, I've got to cut a new piece of paper that really slows me down and annoys me. And the feeling that they're all cut to size and I can just grab another quickly, helps me forget how much the paper cost.

[Sam]

Giant bin.

[Gerry]

Yeah.

[Sam]

If you've got any tricks that would be better than ours and that don't involve getting drunk, will you send us them? We'd love to compile a list of all the different ways people get themselves to do the work.

[Gerry]

Maybe we should make a freebie about ways to trick yourself into getting work done.

[Sam]

This would be cool as one resource.

[Gerry]

For people to go to the Mega.

[Sam]

List, which would be a great way of not getting on with the work. Like I'm reading the list. Look, I've started.

[Gerry]

Download the list. Print it.

[Sam]

There'll always be something.

[Jill]

Print a dreaded printer.

[Sam]

Yes, send them in. We want to know how you trick yourself if you haven't got any. I hope our methods were useful. We'll give out the berating phone number later on. Or come to accountability class.

[Gerry]

Yeah, see you.